Vision Therapy Services
Vision and Learning
More than 80 percent of what we learn is processed visually. It is easy to understand why visual dysfunctions can profoundly affect learning abilities and our success in the world.
Vision is more than having 20/20 eyesight for distance viewing. Most academic learning takes place 14-18 inches from the eyes. A person can have excellent far point vision, yet have severe dysfunctions at near distances, which can seriously impair school performance.
Developmental optometry, a specialty within the field of optometry, recognizes vision as a learned process. More than just the ability to see clearly, vision is the ability to understand and react to what is seen. It involves telling the difference between a "b" and a "d". It involves the ability to follow a series of letters across the page. It involves the ability to “picture” in the mind that which was just seen, as in spelling, or to visually create new images.
Vision Evaluation
The Doctors of Optometry at Hope Clinic, Theodore S. Kadet, O.D., FCOVD and Alan Pearson, O.D., M.Ed. are sensitive to the critical relationship between vision and academic learning. Specialized tests are performed to assess all aspects of each person’s vision. These tests include how both eyes point as a team (alignment), how they aim (tracking), and how they provide clarity (focusing). Also included is how clear, single vision can be sustained (especially at a near-point reading task).
If significant visual deficits are found, recommendations may include eyeglasses alone or combined with vision therapy.
Vision Therapy
Vision Therapy is the art and science of developing, enhancing and remediating visual abilities to achieve optimal visual performance. Therapy employs lenses, prisms, filters and other instruments to make changes in the visual input, thus bringing about changes in the visual output. Therapy helps to eliminate visual stress to make learning less tiring. Vision therapy also addresses the ability to understand and remember what we see.
Vision Therapy is often mistaken for "eye exercises". This is a misnomer since the eyes do not need exercise in the same sense that we exercise for general muscle development in the body. Vision Therapy is not used to strengthen eye muscles, but
rather to improve the coordination, efficiency and functioning of the visual system.
Both children and adults can benefit from therapy for the treatment of visual aspects of learning disabilities, general binocular dysfunctions, strabismus (an eye that turns), amblyopia ("lazy eye"), myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), eyestrain from computer use, and for general visual hygiene and enrichment.